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The celebrated conductor recalls how a brand new record player and a stack of Mozart LPs sparked his life-long love of opera. Hear what he describes as "still my favorite recording of my favorite piece in the world."

Like his friend and compatriot Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer Vissarion Shebalin swayed with the dictates of the regime, from grand success to humiliating condemnation. A new album of orchestral suites puts the lighter side of Shebalin's music into focus.

For all its ubiquity and imitators, 2003's Transatlanticism holds up as an exquisitely produced, largely flawless record in which every song is bound to be someone's favorite. In this reissue, the album is packaged alongside an identically sequenced yet revelatory set of demo versions.

The rapper from Gary, Ind., moved to L.A. 10 years ago, where he met Madlib, a producer revered for his collaborations. The two of them have now made an album Gibbs thinks can't be touched.

For three years, the jazz musician and his collaborator Mike Ladd have been working with war veterans-turned-poets to bring their words to light. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with Iyer and Iraq veteran Maurice Decaul about the album that resulted, Holding It Down: The Veterans' Dreams Project.

After two solid albums, Too Bright is something shockingly new for Perfume Genius: a set of muscular, magnificently controlled songs that explore darkness inside and out.

The 19-year-old Bugg is both a rebel and a natural-born hitmaker, expressing anger, hope and the desire for change within melodies that sound totally right for the radio.

If you follow modern jazz, be of good cheer: Moran's new album, which celebrates 10 years of his Bandwagon trio, is as brilliant as anything he's done. If you don't already know about this guy, start here; he's an impressive jazz pianist who thinks way beyond jazz. Hear Ten in its entirety until its release on June 22.

The latest recording from Jason Moran and his trio is called Ten, and this year marks the group's 10-year anniversary. The trio has expanded jazz with elements of hip-hop and electronic music, a mix that critics have hailed as visionary.

Moran's new album, Ten, is like a stack of progress reports -- on his personal growth as pianist and as a composer, on the development of a trio with stable personnel for a decade, and on how jazz itself has progressed over the last 10 years.